Settling in

Del has been doing a yeoman’s job of holding down the fort while Melanie has been gone on vacation these last coupla weeks. She’s been with us for about three months, but only one day/week which isn’t a lot when there are as many therapists, programs, and procedures as there around this place.

I think we had a record breaking number of people booking initial appointments on Monday…and she kept it all together to get everyone the information she needed…She rocked!

What’s been even lovelier to have happen these last couple of weeks is she’s starting to ask questions about why we do things the way we do. She’s got some great ideas, and her fresh eyes looking at things, combined with her increased comfort level around here and her clearly caring about us mean that we’re making little changes here and there so that things work better.

our bamboo plant has someone who cares about why its yellowing

we’ve added another couple of slots to the magazine holder so our new magazines aren’t as crushed…and there is a place for the “please take one” sheets about our new group (more coming on that tomorrow!)

we’re looking at the lousy voice mail system that MTS has set us up with that a computer answers for voice mail rather than us…there’s gotta be a better way

new batteries in the door lock

and I could go on.

Not only are the ideas great…the fact that she is making suggestions like this makes it feel like she has become a part of us, not only officially, but informally and at more of a heart level. She has even been scouting for some new quotes for our bulletin board which we like to keep tidy and fresh and interesting…one of her contributions:

Cute, eh?

(It can sound cute cuz I’m not upset…it makes a lot of sense when calm…but who of us haven’t had some knee jerk reaction in crisis that we’ve had to pay for, for a long time)